Abstract
In this study, we propose a steering control method for a cycling wheelchair. The commercially available cycling wheelchair is a pedal-driven system like a bicycle and the paraplegia and hemiplegia patients can move the wheelchair based on the pedaling force, if they can move their legs slightly by themselves. The user can also change the motion direction of the cycling wheelchair by using the steering handle. However, the right and left turnings are perceived differently while operating the steering handle and the steering operation is required a large torque because of the hardware problems of the cycling wheelchair. To overcome these problems, we propose a new hardware of the cycling wheelchair and its steering motion control method by using servo brakes. The proposed method is applied to the developed new cycling wheelchair and the experimental results illustrate the validity of the system.
